


Names Will Shape Me, Names Will Make Me

by TheMadThing



Series: Name Me, Love Me [3]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Kid Jack, Multi, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, jack growing up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 03:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3104336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMadThing/pseuds/TheMadThing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Names to Make a Whole, companion to One Name to Break Me, One Name to Make Me.<br/>Follows Jack growing up with all his names and how that affects him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Names Will Shape Me

Jack was always seen as special, different. Like all Boeshane he had soulmarks, naming his soulmates. Unlike most Boeshane he had nearly 300, in as many languages, instead of the usual two or three. As the Boeshane were a much more accepting species than their human ancestors they accepted Jack’s names, decided from the range of languages from time and space that he was probably going to join the time agency and got on with being pleased about that. It made jack’s life a lot easier than it might have been, and when he decided to join the time agency there was no fuss, no bother, just quiet nods that reminded him that they’d all been waiting for this his whole life. The time agency weren’t bothered either, although it was strange for him, having nobody care about his soulmarks at all apart from a few people who had his name on their bodies. He never did find a soulmate at the time agency, though he encountered many on his time travels, starting to colour a few of his names, some deep red, which faded to blood red when he had to leave them, though he made the effort to visit those he could as much as possible until the agency located each one and stopped him seeing them, a ruling he considered grossly unfair. The rest turned sludge brown where they had rejected him, mainly because of his many names. Few people were prepared to give love to a man who so clearly would leave them, take new soulmates through the ages. He preferred that to the yellow though. For him yellow just meant a chance gone, a missed chance at some happiness with someone born to be with him. By the time he left the agency he had met 145 of his soulmates, been accepted and loved by 73, been rejected by 67 and missed his chance with 5. By the time he met Ianto Jones only one more had been found, the man who called himself the Doctor, his name written in Gallifreyan down Jack’s arm, indecipherable to any except the Doctor, though Jack knew it simply said "the Doctor". After the Doctor Jack hadn’t thought he could ever fall that fast again, but when he met Ianto... He fell harder and faster than he ever had and ever would again.


	2. Names Will Make Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is Jack's POV of his various meetings with Ianto until the day that he discovers his soulmark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how canon compliant this is, I haven't seen Fragments yet, which I believe is when you see how and in what order they all get recruited. I'm basically guessing from what I do know. My excuse is that it's AU so how much does it matter?

When Jack Harkness first met Ianto Jones he barely glanced at him. To him he was just the Torchwood 1 head archivist, nobody important to Jack. They were introduced at an inter-Torchwood meeting, back before Jack broke Torchwood Three off from One. He never noticed the blue soulmark on Ianto’s wrist, covered as it was with his watch. He shook his hand politely, forced a smile while quietly sulking about having to be there at all, never mind having to be introduced to people like archivists instead of more important people like top field agents. A few moments later and Ianto Jones was forgotten among all the other names around him. He had met so many Iantos around in Cardiff already that the name barely registered despite it being written in an elegant curving script around his wrist.

The second time Jack met Ianto Jones was when they attempted to catch a pterodactyl together outside the tourist office in Cardiff. He still didn’t notice the soulmark on his wrist though and if Ianto noticed Jack’s soulmarks he didn’t mention it at the time.

In fact it took Suzie’s sharp eyes to finally open Jack’s. It was just a normal day at Torchwood Three, if unusually quiet, no weevils, and no rift spikes anywhere. Jack was in his office, catching up on paperwork when he heard Suzie call his name.  
“Yeah?” he asked, poking his head round the door, rather surprised to see Suzie holding Ianto by the wrist tightly. Painfully tightly if the expression on his face was anything to go by.  
“You need to see this,” she replied enigmatically. Jack raised his eyebrows but came down the stairs anyway to look. What he saw took his breath away. He didn’t really know what he’d been expecting but whatever he had been expecting it certainly wasn’t this battered and scarred soulmark bearing his own name, the name he’d been given as a baby, written in the alphabet of the Boeshane Peninsula.  
“How is that possible?” he asked pointlessly, then to Ianto, “My office, now.”  
“Yes sir,” Ianto said, looking slightly worried. Wordlessly Suzie dropped his wrist as he turned to follow Jack into his office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be one more part in this series, starting from the conversation in Jack's office and leading on until somewhere. I don't know where this will go. Tbh I never really know how my stories will end. It's a rollercoaster of exploration.

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapter will be published twice, once with this fic and once with the previous one in the series, from Jacks POV here and Ianto's there


End file.
